Search - JHNO :: Kwno

Jaw dropping

11/25/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"jhno (say juh-KNOW) who studied jazz along with classical piano and ethnomusicology, started spinning experimental drum & bass when he moved to San Francisco from Austin in 1994. Soon he began exploring the similarities between drum & bass and the Gamelan music of Java and Bali, often blurring genre boundaries with his own material. In 1996 he self-released his debut album Understand, an organic blend of live instrumentation and computerized beat- tweaking. Jhno comes from the generative school of music-making (see Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars/Oval /Microstoria or John Oswald's Plunderphonics), where "drum programmer" takes on a whole new meaning; he distributes his homemade audio shareware through his Web site. Kwno follows 1997 junglish 12-inch "Fly" with an impossibly mellow vibe. Here, many components work independently of each other - like a mesh of tiny gears in a pocket watch - to create a seamless, mesmerizing whole. Not so much chin-stroking music as it is jaw-dropping."

Brilliant! For People Who Like Electronics Deep

05/23/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jhno is not only the author of this CD and others, he is the programming whiz behind much of Pluggo, the most fabulous music-making plug-ins. This CD offers pseudo-gamelan, wonderful sounds swirling about, Rhodes-sounding chords, a subdued, bass-heavy vortex of scary stuff... (I've managed to scare people with this album twice) and a wonderful track - little yellow car (take me far mix) that transports me every time I listen to it. Truly a favorite that I like to play for people who think they are into expermimental electronica or drum and bass but haven't heard of this guy. Deserving of many listens. (But my dad said - "sounds like you could hit the repeat button on the CD player for that one...." he's into bebop. ;-)"